Religion and Public Diplomacy

P. Seib

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781349450749, 9781137291110
• eBook ISBN: 9781137291127
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Diplomacy & Treaties
• Index: Social Sciences

Mixing religion and public diplomacy can produce volatile results, but in a world in which the dissemination and influence of religious beliefs are enhanced by new communications technologies, religion is a factor in many foreign policy issues and must be addressed. Faith is such a powerful part of so many people's lives that it should be incorporated in public diplomacy efforts if they are to have meaningful resonance among the publics they are trying to reach. This book addresses key issues of faith in an increasingly connected and religious world and provides a better understanding of the role religion plays in public diplomacy.

C H A P T E R N I N E

Shaping the Narrative of Religious Freedom

LIORA DANAN

The foreign policy community has increasingly recognized that the world is often—and powerfully—shaped by religion.¹ Indeed, experts have argued that the success of US diplomacy in the next decade will be measured by “its ability to connect with the hundreds of millions of people throughout the world whose identity is defined by religion.”²

The US government’s primary way of viewing and engaging the issue of religion in its foreign policy is through the lens of religious freedom, and the conviction that individuals and communities should be allowed to hold and express their beliefs publicly and without fear.

The principle of religious liberty, clearly central to the American story,³ has developed into a foreign policy imperative, codified in the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).⁴ Religious freedom is also a global aspiration; the vast majority of poll respondents worldwide say it is important that they live in a country where they can freely practice their religion.⁵ For more than 60 years the international community has officially recognized religious freedom as a basic human right, and scholars have recently linked religious liberty with development, democracy, and peace.⁶

But despite its significance at home and endorsement abroad, religious freedom has been a challenging policy to promote. The scale itself is daunting: 75 percent of the world’s population lives in countries with considerable restrictions on religion.⁷ Efforts have also met suspicion abroad about cultural imperialism or Christian favoritism, and skepticism stateside—that this effort somehow violates the constitution or oversteps boundaries. And while US initiatives have earned significant victories in protecting individuals and advancing state reforms, structural and conceptual elements of IRFA have been criticized by experts outside and within government. Conceptually, although the act refers broadly to advancing religious freedom, it established procedures focused less on promoting that right than on identifying problems and countering religious persecution. Those reactive methods have sometimes been interpreted abroad as a “naming and shaming” approach to imposing American values on foreign societies.

In recent years, the state department, supported by other government agencies, has moved toward proactive strategies to prevent violations of religious freedom, funding programs that engage institutions and societies in its protection. Particularly as recent Middle East developments have highlighted important issues around the role of religion in public life, US officials have recognized that discussions about religious freedom require a coordinated government approach, aimed at creating change through attraction and dialogue rather than coercion.

The tools of public diplomacy are key to furthering that new, “soft-power” strategy for religious freedom promotion. Successful public diplomacy—whether in articulating US values, advocating for US foreign policy, or influencing environments abroad to further US interests—is inseparable from the issue of religious freedom. And public diplomacy has a vital role to play in both raising awareness about government restrictions and encouraging the social conditions necessary for religious freedom.

Public diplomacy techniques and tools may be most successful in strengthening religious freedom abroad when grounded in a thoughtful engagement of both the varied motivations for adopting religious freedom and concerns about US promotion of it. Across these efforts, phrasing and terminology matter,⁸ and messages are more likely to be well-received if informed by a careful assessment of local vocabulary and host-country frameworks around religious freedom.

It is often possible to identify host-culture traditions and principles that support religious freedom, and to ascertain the reasons for adopting religious freedom most salient in a particular place. In some regions, for example, women’s rights or citizenship rights are particularly powerful, relevant concepts,⁹ and religious freedom may benefit from being associated with such positive, resonant terms.¹⁰ In the Islamic tradition, the religious studies professor Abdulaziz Sachedina has written about the “centrality of Koranic teachings about religious and cultural pluralism as a divinely ordained principle of peaceful coexistence among human societies.”¹¹ Other scholars have written that credibility with the “Muslim street” in some countries requires speaking about “justice (a concept which generally resonates more in the Muslim world than freedom) and emphasizing the importance of both religion and religious toleration in our own history.”¹² In Europe, emphasis on the European Convention of Human Rights might be most effective; elsewhere UN charters may have more resonance.¹³

Successfully promoting religious freedom in East Asia may require emphasis on social harmony and stability, as well as equal rights for minority groups.¹⁴ In China, efforts are more likely to be effective if they align with “growing domestic rights-consciousness and expectations for democratization under new leaders” and show that religious freedom “is not only morally right but also vital for developing a healthy and stable civil society.”¹⁵ That approach may cultivate positive views of religion—including its connection to economic development—to help religious freedom gain ground in China.

This chapter is divided into three sections that broadly explore opportunities for context-appropriate messaging on religious freedom. The first section outlines four major reasons for promoting or adopting religious freedom, based on recent data and research. The second provides an overview of practical and theoretical arguments that address four common concerns about US international religious freedom promotion. The final section suggests broad strategies for employing public diplomacy tools to promote religious freedom, with examples of how those strategies might be implemented.

Making the Case for Religious Freedom

Diplomatic efforts may be most successful when engaging the reasons for protecting religious freedom that are most salient in a particular location or situation. This section summarizes recent research and data in outlining four major reasons for promoting religious freedom.

Religious Freedom Upholds an Internationally Recognized Human Right

According to IRFA, the United States promotes religious freedom as an internationally recognized human right. All United Nations member states have voted to uphold it, and people around the world have responded overwhelmingly in polls that they want the freedom to practice their own religions. Commitments to “freedom of thought, conscience, and religion” are enshrined in numerous international documents.¹⁶

Various validations of human rights can be applied in making the case for religious freedom. The authors of the International Bill of Human Rights explained that human rights “derive from the inherent dignity of the human person.”¹⁷ As a human right, religious liberty can therefore be justified by a moral understanding of human nature, that existence implies a search for ultimate purpose. In The Right to Be Wrong, Kevin Seamus Hasson argues that the right to religious liberty stems from our status as “intelligent and free beings who are naturally able to know and to choose.” He writes that “w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• One   Why Religion Still Matters in the World
• Two   Pope John Paul II, Radio Free Europe, and Faith Diplomacy
• Three   Vatican Diplomacy in China and Vietnam
• Four   China’s Faith Diplomacy
• Five   Public Diplomacy and Transnational Cases of Blasphemy
• Six   Muslims’ Online Faith Diplomacy
• Seven   The Minaret Referendum and Switzerland’s Proactive Public Diplomacy
• Eight   Capturing the World’s Attention: Buddhist Media Diplomacy in Myanmar
• Nine   Shaping the Narrative of Religious Freedom
• Conclusion   The Future of Religion and Public Diplomacy
• Index